Republic Day
by Augustine94
Summary: On the anniversary of the Republic a Padawan reflects on how her life has changed due to the Clone Wars.


Republic Day

It was too hot to sleep. The Padawan rolled over on her cot for what must have been the hundredth time. Her snoring Master seemed to have no problem sleeping, she shouldn't either. They were both exhausted from a long day of fighting on some backwater world of the outer rim. Outside their tent the battle raged on in the distance. She and her Master were resting for a few hours before returning to the inferno. Those few hours, the girl knew, should be spent sleeping- not memorizing stains on the fabric of the ceiling. She sighed and rolled over again. It wasn't just the heat on this dry, dusty world that was impeding her sleep, it was also the knowledge of what day it was.

It was Republic Day. The yearly festival celebrated throughout the galaxy to commemorate the beginning of the Republic, some thousands of years ago. This day was usually one of festivity, even at the Temple. There were no classes, and many Jedi would leave the Temple to go to the festival in the city below. As an Initiate she had spent the day among her friends swimming in the lake, observing sparring matches and watching wide-eyed as even the most stoic Masters ran around like a bunch of crazy Padawans. No one was immune to the frivolity of the celebration.

In the evening, they would gather on the Temple roof to watch the fireworks display. The fireworks had been going off all day of course, but the main event was shortly after dusk when they were launched from the roof of the senate building. The girl and her friends would stretch out on the warm rooftop, eat sweet berries and watch the display.

As she grew older and became a Padawan herself, the day changed little for her. She now spent the day with her Master and his friends, many of whom were Master to her own friends. The first year she celebrated this day as a Padawan, she assumed she would be expected to be more composed. To her surprise, things were even wilder with her Master's friends.

Not this year though. This year there would be no swimming in the lake or sweet berries on the rooftop. The entire celebration on Coruscant and throughout the galaxy would be more subdued. This year, the girl and her friends were spread throughout the galaxy fighting a war that it did not seem like they could win. Many of her friends had been injured; some had even died fighting this war. She was done with it. She didn't want to fight this war. She didn't want to _die_ for this war. She wanted the war to be over. She wanted to go back to her old life at the Temple. She wanted to sit on the rooftop and watch fireworks, not bombs, light the sky.

She just didn't want to fight anymore. She had spent too many days out under the hot sun of this world turning battle droids into scrap and watching her troops get shot down. She wanted peace. She was done with the bloodshed, done with the killing, done with this whole kriffing war.

When would this war end? She had wondered that many times. It had been over a year ago that she had accompanied her Master to Geonosis for what had quickly become a slaughter. One of her best friends had died that day. She had seen him fall in the dust, shot down by a Driodeka. She had seen the pain in his Master's eyes as she saw her Padawan die and could not stop to mourn for a second, lest she die herself. Her friend's Master did die that day, along with nearly every other Jedi who had left Coruscant on the fateful mission. The girl knew that she was lucky to be alive, incredibly lucky that both she and her Master survived that battle with only minor injuries.

That day was horrible, but it was nothing compared to the days ahead. No one really even had time to contemplate the atrocities of Geonosis before they were thrown into preparations for galactic war. This war had consumed the galaxy, it had consumed everything. It had consumed the very thing that the Jedi strived to be. No longer were they keepers of the peace. They were soldiers, and they hated it. Being a soldier was not the Jedi way.

_This train of thought is not going to help you sleep_, she chastised herself. _Sleep now while you can. Like it or not, you'll be fighting again in a few hours._ She rolled onto her back, determined to make the most of her few hours of rest. The light of a single star could be seen poking through a hole in the roof of the tent. The girl wondered which star it was, what planets it gave light to. She wondered if she would ever see the star that warmed Coruscant again. She hoped that one day life would return to how it had been before, but she had a horrible feeling that the galaxy was about to change forever.

_And again, _she thought, _that is not going to help you sleep. _As the girl closed her eyes she could almost make herself believe that the bombs screaming through the air were only fireworks on Coruscant celebrating the anniversary of the Republic.

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This is my first attempt at fanfiction so please leave a review. I'd really like to know what you think of it.


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